* The OAU and UN have called for an end to hostilities
in Congo as fighting again shook the Congolese capital
Brazzaville today. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
yesterday urged President Pascal Lissouba and ex-president
Denis Sassou Nguesso, who say they have both ordered
their troops to cease fire, to begin negotiations to
settle their differences. Today OAU chairman and Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe echoed the call, and said the
OAU was ready to mediate. However, sources on the ground
reported heavy weapons and automatic gunfire today.
AFP quoted military sources as saying French troops
in Brazzaville were today awaiting the arrival from
Chad of six tanks to evacuate foreigners trapped in
their homes.

President Boris Yeltsin yesterday ordered the evacuation
of Russian and CIS nationals from Congo, the Russian
Itar-Tass news agency reported. The South Korean ambassador
to former Zaire, who was evacuated from Kinshasa to
Congo at the time of the takeover by the Alliance of
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo(ADFL),
has now been evacuated to Libreville in Gabon. The
ICRC has stopped carrying out evacuations saying the
situation makes it impossible to work. In a statement
today, it called on the warring sides to spare civilians
from the violence.

However, ICRC announced it would today send two flights
from Kinshasa with food and medical supplies for Rwandan
refugees in Loukelela, northern Congo. This will be
the first time aid workers have had access to the refugees
since fighting broke out last week. The situation in
Loukelela is reported fairly tense as a result of refugees
going into farms and fields searching for food.

* Eritrea has accused Sudan of planning to launch an
attack, according to AFP. It said it had received a
fax from the Eritrean embassy in Nairobi warning that
Asmara reserved the right of self-defence and denying
Sudanese accusations of an Eritrean troop build-up
along the border.

* The Sudanese government has approved June's flight
clearance schedule for aid flights into southern Sudan,
based in Lokichokio, "Operation Lifeline Sudan"
reported today. However flights into Yei, Rumbek, Tonj
and Warrap were not approved. The Khartoum authorities
also imposed the condition that the government-held
areas of Gogrial, Pibor, Yirol, Kapoeta, Torit, Tali
and Nasir should also be served. OLS said flights resumed
yesterday after a seven-day suspension.

* Humanitarian sources said 12 bombs were dropped on
the southern Sudanese town of Maridi on Tuesday, killing
one woman and injuring eight more people, five of whom
are said to be in a critical condition.

* The joint UN-OAU Special Representative to the Great
Lakes Mohamed Sahnoun is due to leave Geneva for Kinshasa
today for talks with President Laurent-Desire Kabila,
including alleged human rights abuses in eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC). While in the area, Sahnoun
will also explore further possible contributions by
the UN to resolve the conflict in Brazzaville.

* Associated Press reported that four mountain gorillas
were killed in crossfire during fighting between ADFL
soldiers and Rwandan insurgents in eastern DRC last
month. It cited the Nairobi-based International Gorilla
Conservation Programme as saying the gorillas included
a silverback named Kabirizi. The four gorillas were
part of a family which had been habituated to humans.
Fewer than 620 mountain gorillas remain in the world,
with many of them living in the Virunga mountains that
straddle Rwanda, DRC and Uganda.

* In Mbuji-Mayi, UNHCR officials said they had located
a group of 234 Rwandan and 25 Burundian refugees. According
to the refugees, they were part of a larger group,
possibly amounting to some 30,000, which split several
weeks ago with half moving towards Kinshasa and half
towards Angola.

* ICRC said yesterday over 5,000 unaccompanied children
had been repatriated to Rwanda from DRC since the end
of April and 2,620 family reunions had been arranged
since the beginning of May. Most of the children were
old enough to provide information about their families
and origins, it said.

* Rwandan military spokesman Emmanuel Ndahiro said a
number of suspected Interahamwe members were wounded
after an attempt to free prisoners in the northwest
was repulsed by the army. According to AFP, he said
the attempt occurred on Sunday night at Kinigi prison,
north of Ruhengeri. Ndahiro added that after the raid,
some 60 people were taken to the stadium in Ruhengeri
for screening and several arrests were made.

* A Burundian official has urged caution over "infiltrations"
from the Tanzanian side of the border, saying there
is a corridor from Tanzania passing through Giharo,
Mugege and Itaba communes. Leonidas Hakizimana, the
Rutana governor, told Burundi radio yesterday that
some "assailants" had been arrested.

* A total of 350 people have died from cholera in Tanzania
since the beginning of the year, according to official
figures issued by the Health Ministry, through WHO.
Worst affected are the Dar es Salaam area with 3,376
cases reported as of 28 May 1997, and Kigoma where
1,371 cases were reported as of 22 May. The cumulative
number of cases throughout the country as of last month
is 6,435.

* About 500 heavily armed rebels of the Allied Democratic
Forces (ADF) have crossed into Uganda from the DRC
over the Ruwenzori mountains, the state-owned 'New
Vision' reported today, quoting a security source.
The official said it was not clear whether they had
come to fight or surrender.

Nairobi, 12 June 1997, 15:00 gmt [ENDS]

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